Family Matters
by Piger123
Summary: Emma loves Ruby. She loves her so much that most of the time she can't bear to look at it directly, for fear it will burn her up. She jokes with Ruby and insults her and hardly ever says the words because they're so completely inadequate for describing how she feels and somehow 'Whatever' conveys it so much better.
1. Chapter 1

This is going to be a story about Emma and Ruby's relationship. It is HEAVILY based on "Izunami" a hartbig fanfic. There is going to be a happy ending and a sad ending, so you may read the one you want it to end with. I am going to update it once a week, with pretty long chapters (this one is the shortest I think). Feel free to comment. I accept all reviews. Thank you. -Piger123

Chapter 1

Emma loves Ruby. She loves her so much that most of the time she can't bear to look at it directly, for fear it will burn her up. She jokes with Ruby and insults her and hardly ever says the words because they're so completely inadequate for describing how she feels and somehow 'Whatever' conveys it so much better.

There are times though, when they lie together in the middle of the night, sweating and sated and tangled up in each other like a Gordian knot, that Emma stops joking, looks Ruby in the eye and tells her. Those are the nights she drops all her defenses and lets Ruby see her heart, and the vulnerability of it is both terrifying and addictive. Emma knows if she didn't need Ruby so much, she'd run, but the thought of being without Ruby scares her way more than the thought of Ruby hurting her.

Ruby loves her back. No, that isn't right. Ruby _worships_ her. Emma catches her sometimes, in unguarded moments, staring at Emma with the goofiest look of absolute awe and devotion, as though she still can't believe that she's allowed to be in Emma's presence. Ruby has no problem with 'I love you' and tells her at least six times a day and Emma smiles every time.

It's probably not healthy, their devotion to each other, but neither of them care. They have each other and Emma is so determined to make sure that never changes that she spends a _ridiculous _amount of money on a ring, gets down on one knee and gives a long, rambling, tearful speech that in the end boils down to begging Ruby never to leave her. By the end Ruby is on the floor with her, hands covering her mouth and tears of joy sliding down her face, and when Emma slides the ring onto her finger, Ruby breaks down into full blown sobbing only moments before Emma does. It's the weirdest sex they've ever had, including the time with the Dutch sex toy Hook bought them as a joke. They lie together afterwards, exhausted and tear-streaked, and laugh like idiots at how dramatic they managed to make something that was such a foregone conclusion that Hook and Robin were running a pool on how long it would take.

Ruby outs them in her first shift at "Granny's" after Emma proposes. Emma watches as everybody looks at Ruby's shimmering smile and then at the ring. All of them questioning if it was a joke.

"I love you!" Ruby murmers as she passed Emma while waiting tables, pulling the cork on a champagne bottle for Mr. and Mrs. Gold. The diamond on her finger sparkles and Ruby's grin could probably light a small house fire. There are the usual jokes and men eyeing her, and then, just to make it painfully obvious to the terminally unobservant among her viewers, Ruby carefully removes the ring, kisses it and loops in onto a silver chain around her neck before plunging her hands into whatever culinary disaster she's attempting to fix up at Granny's this week. The staring proceeds as normal and Emma can just _feel _the people of Storybrook screaming in their minds for Ruby to tell them who gave her the ring.

After the 'cooking' is finished, Ruby washes her hands, dries them and slides the ring off it's chain and back onto her finger and flashes another heart-stopping smile at the now-crowded diner.

"Real talk, guys," she whispers to Hook and Robin, happily and messily, "It's not a prank. I'm getting married."


	2. Chapter 2

Ten months out from the wedding, Ruby's lease finally expires. Most of her stuff has been at Emma's house for months and paying rent on an apartment she barely uses has been a pain in the ass. She and Emma load the last of her things onto the U-Haul and look at Ruby's now ex-front door.

"This was the first place I ever had that was just mine. I earned it, you know?" Ruby's voice wobbles a little and Emma pretends not to notice. She wraps her arm around Ruby's shoulders and squeezes once, briefly.

"You really did," She agrees.

Ruby sniffles quietly. "Bye, house." She lifts one hand in farewell and climbs into the truck.

Emma gets in the other side and grabs Ruby's keys, the red crystal wolf dangling down, from the dashboard. Trying not to let Ruby see, she removes the key to her own house – their house, now – that's Ruby's had for months. She slips it into her pocket and smiles innocently at Ruby as they drive back.

Ruby parks the truck and Emma tosses her keys over and busies herself pretending to tie her shoelace as Ruby goes to the door. She sees Ruby search for the key and jumps out.

"Babe, where's my key?" Ruby asks, sounding tired.

Emma smiles. "I thought we should do this right," she answers, "since it's official now." She presents the key, now with a blood red ribbon, matching the wolf, tied through it in a bow.

"Welcome home, Ruby Lucas."

Ruby stares at the key and then at her; Her eyes well up a little. Emma knows that Ruby likes to mark big events and they hadn't really been able to do that up to now. Ruby hadn't officially moved in, she'd just kind of migrated over in some kind of domestic osmosis, but this is a milestone Emma can make a fuss over. Ruby reaches out to take the key and slips it into her pocket, looking at Emma with that expression that is just _hers_; that only she can put on Ruby's face. Ruby's arms go around her waist and she leans up to kiss Emma.

"You are amazing," Ruby whispers against her lips, "How did you know I needed that?"

"I love you," Emma replies. Ruby smiles and kisses her again.

It takes until almost midnight to finish bringing the last of the stuff in from the truck. Ruby moves the truck off the road and Emma makes a pot of green tea. She's developed a grudging tolerance for the stuff since starting to date Ruby and she'd never admit it, but it does sound appealing after a long day. Ruby comes in through the back door and takes her mug gratefully. They sit together in warm silence, broken only by the faint sound of Goose's panting from the other room.

"Hey Emma," Ruby says finally.

"Mmm?"

"We live together."

Emma smiles. "We do."

"We're getting married," Ruby says, sounding faintly awed.

"We are," Emma confirms, rubbing her finger over the clean cut ruby on Ruby's engagement ring. She's never been more proud of anything she's done than that ring, even though it was only for irony.

"I didn't know a person could be so happy," Ruby whispers gutturally. Feeling the effect she has on Emma, as she crashes their lips together forcefully, pushing her against one of the new walls, of their new house.


	3. Chapter 3

They try and keep their work separate most of the time, despite living together. Emma's teasing sometimes makes Ruby laugh a little too loudly at work, and Ruby occasionally wanders into the police office, during the period of time that Emma is in her office there. Three months before the wedding Emma and Ruby go for a walk by the beach, holding hands, and, unknowingly to them, were spotted by Grumpy. Knowing him, the news flew around the town so quick, it seemed everybody knew except them. "Holy shit, dude," Ruby commented, "I didn't even see him!"

Emma laughs.

"Hey Granny, this week I have a very special guest to help with the cookies, who's possibly even worse at cooking than I am!"

Granny just shook her head at the two lovebirds, and walked out of the kitchen, passing Ruby who looked like she had dragged Emma out of bed to the diner.

Emma clamps down on the urge to smile at her beautiful fiancé.

"How dare you?" Emma smirked, trying to sound angry

"Sorry babe," Ruby grins, "It's true!"

Emma turns and looks at Ruby straight in her eyes, lips turned down.

"I want a divorce."

Ruby snorts. "We're not married yet!"

Emma frowns harder.

"Then I want a prenup."

And they're off.

They cook for almost two hours and by the end they've pretty much forgotten about the cookies. Emma is covered in flour from an impromptu food-fight and Ruby has chocolate smeared on her neck and shirt and a white, floury handprint on her ass. She pulls what was supposed to be chocolate chip cookies from the oven and puts them on the counter. They both lean over to inspect the result. The 'cookies' are basically lumps of charcoal. There's a pause, then they glance at each other and howl with laughter.

"You are so bad at this!" Emma tells Ruby, who clutches her chest in mock scandal.

"You're the one who didn't set the timer!" Ruby accuses.

Ruby rubs her face with the back of her hand, smearing yet more chocolate across it. Emma laughs even harder.

"You idiot," she says fondly, "Come here." She wipes at the chocolate with her finger and offers it to Ruby, who instinctively licks it.

Emma is a little fuzzy on what happens after that but somehow she has Ruby pinned against the counter, breathing hard as Emma sucks the chocolate from her throat.

"Emma, the diner," Ruby gasps.

"Shut up," Emma says, and kisses her…

She hadn't realized it until she overheard Cruella de Vil telling Aladdin about how often she reaches out to touch Ruby, or kisses her on the head in passing, or just how goofy she looks when Ruby does something cute. She's in love, and it shows.

It's three weeks until the wedding and Emma is a little surprised that neither of them have freaked out yet. Granny and Snow basically hijacked the whole thing so that the two of them, usually, just had to pick from a short list of five or six venues or caterers or whatever and now everything is booked and ordered and ready and Emma had expected to be having a nervous breakdown at this point. Instead, she's mostly impatient. She can't wait to be married to Ruby. What she is nervous about, though, is the bachelorette party tonight. Ruby insists on referring to it as a 'stag night', and Emma had tuned out halfway through the explanation why. Something about deer and British chickens?

Hook and Robin had planned the whole thing and promised it would outdo even Hook's birthday weekend. Emma and Ruby were forbidden from asking questions so when the limo draws up to take them to the party, they're holding hands out of nervousness more than affection.

"How bad can it be?" Ruby asks, laughing nervously.

Emma looks at her. "_Crossbows,_ Ruby."

Ruby's eyes widen comically.

"If we don't survive this," she says with exaggerated sincerity, "just know that I love you."

What happens at the party, stays at the party. They agree never to speak of it again, especially the part with the pool table. Emma just hopes she stops limping in time for her wedding.

The last three weeks seem to somehow both drag on forever and go by in an instant, but eventually, Emma is standing in a hotel room in a gorgeous white dress as her mom fusses around her and tries not to cry. Hook is with Ruby, Granny and Emma's son, Henry is downstairs doing his groomsman thing. Emma feels like she's at the eye of a huge storm and she really wants to just find Ruby and hold on to her for a while. Her phone beeps and Ruby's name pops up on the screen.

_You ready?_

She smiles.

_Race you to the altar_

The response comes back straight away.

_We're in a hotel, Emma. There is no altar._

_Bite me_

_That's what the honeymoon full-moon is for._

And just like that, it's time.

She walks down the aisle and all she can see is Ruby. She reaches the end and Ruby takes her hands and holds tight, beaming at her. She vaguely registers the music fade away and the guests take their seats but Ruby is filling up the whole world and Emma doesn't even hear the opening of the ceremony. Ruby is biting her lip in an effort not to cry and Emma has a lump in her throat the size of a baseball. They just stare at each other, letting the ceremony wash over them and drinking each other in until finally they deliver the wedding vows. Ruby goes first and has to clear her throat three times before she can speak. Emma somehow manages not to cry as she recites the words. Up until this moment she'd always found them a little trite, cliché even, but she's never felt more sincere than she does right now.

"And now," the priest says once she finishes, "Ruby and Emma have decided to add to the traditional wedding vows with their own promises." He nods to Ruby.

"Emma," Ruby says, voice shaking, "I promise to always be honest with you. I promise to respect you. I promise to tell you how much I love you every day. I promise to keep ice cream in the house at all times," Emma lets out a choked laugh at that, "and I promise to stand beside you, no matter what, forever."

Tears stream down Emma's cheeks and she shakes her head helplessly. There's no way she's going to manage the speech she has prepared without breaking down, so she goes for the essentials.

"Everything," she choked, and continued her promises, "always."

And then her wife is kissing her and the crowd goes wild.


End file.
